The Alabama Crimson Tide looks to avenge an earlier season loss as the face the Kentucky Wildcats in the second round of the SEC tournament. Behind double-doubles from John Wall and Demarcus Cousins, the Wildcats defeated the Tide 66-55 on February 9 in Rupp Arena. Alabama was led by Tony Mitchells 13 points that night.
Alabama made it to the second round of the SEC Tournament by defeating South Carolina 68-63. Down by 18 midway through the second half, the Alabama Crimson Tide locked down on defense to fuel a 25-6 run. Mikhail Torrance led the Tide with 17 points, and Justin Knox chipped in 16 points and 7 rebounds.
After facing the SEC leading scorer, now Bama's attention turns to the SEC player of the Year. Brett Dawson talked to the Crimson Tide in his latest piece for the Courier Journal. Here are some comments.
As the Tide surged, South Carolina and star point guard Devan Downey
struggled. He finished with 21 points but shot just 7for21, including 3for13 in the second half.
It was the sort of defensive effort the Tide hopes to apply to John Wall and the Wildcats on Friday.
“That effort right there, we're going to have to play it the whole 40 minutes,” forward Justin Knox said. “You can't go out there slacking. You have to bring your ‘A' game against Kentucky
Click read more for more comments and insight about Friday's quarterfinal game from Brett's article.
UK (29-2) figures to be a far tougher target for the Tide than the Gamecocks were, but the players expressed confidence they can knock off the Cats, who beat them 66-55 on Feb.9 in Rupp Arena in the teams' only regular-season meeting.
Alabama jumped ahead 11-4 that day, hounded Wall into six turnovers, kept the Cats primarily in a half-court game and frazzled them with a zone against which Kentucky made just 3of16 three-pointers.
The Tide had to scrap its way to a victory Thursday, whereas the Cats will come in well-rested. How that factors into the rematch is anybody's guess.
“I guess for us, the experience of playing a game in the tournament, I think, certainly helps us,” Grant said. “On the other side, you could look at it and say Kentucky's got an extra day of rest. Obviously, this was a very competitive, hard-fought game for us.”
A reminder that tipoff for today's game is at 1:00 pm ET. The rest of Brett Dawson's article can be found by clicking here.
